History fans, I need some help and advice

[Goldeh]

I need to start working on my history dissertation proposal and I've had various seminar support on how to choose a topic but nothing about actually selecting one. Everyone I've spoken to have said to choose what I love but I love so many things. I've also been told that it must be an original piece of research and all my ideas feel like I'm re-treading old ground.

Some papers I've written over the course of my studies include topics like:

• social history of industrial revolution era workplace accidents and their impact
• using literature as a historical source
• the history of sleep
• race riots
• commemorations, who we commemorate, who we don't, and why
• the history of aesthetic landscapes
• public history
• environmental history

My areas of interest are the industrial revolution, the Victorians, museums and their role/museum collections, the history of crafts and their stories (especially gendered crafts like knitting, proggy mats, etc and functions the serve in things like identity, remembrance, generational skill sharing, etc), the cultural significance and contextualisation of myths and fairytales, the history of disease.

I cannot think of new research angles on any of these. I know I will eventually and that the reason I'm currently blocked is because I'm overthinking it.

In the meantime, inspire me with your unanswered historical questions, wonderings, musings, and crack theories (my personal crack theory is that vikings wore wooden helmets).

That would be interesting - I read a good (but sad) book called The Woman Behind the Wall about the Mental Defectives’ Act recently.

Not really a topic as such but in terms of Victorian history, I've always thought the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman's Park is both fascinating and moving.

One idea for the history of disease might be tuberculosis. John Green has written a book called Everything is Tuberculosis recently. There is plenty of research about tuberculosis in Haworth, for example.

I’ve just started a book at home, about pregnancy, childbirth and loss. I believe it’s going to cover the Industrial Revolution period and, as I have ancestors who worked in the jute mills of Dundee (all women, men there were often unemployed) I’ve found myself wondering how on earth these great big families survived around the time of confinement.

One of my Sociology lectures was called Mike Oliver, he was a disability rights activist and we spent a lot of time discussing the changing language, I agree it’s fascinating.

That's because if you can read a knitting pattern, you can read a computer program. It's all the same logic - while loops, for loops, arrays, conditions... it was my solution when people were worrying about the lack of programmers before Y2K, but no one listened to me.

Baby farming is an excellent subject to research.

The first software companies were started by women.

There's been an exhibition in Winchester - Beyond the Bonnets - about working women in Jane Austen. It might still be open, but if not, it moves to Basingstoke soon.

Anyway, one of my friends was a volunteer researcher, and they thought they might struggle to find enough things to fill a whole exhibition, but in the end, they had to decide what to leave out.

I know. I developed a whole talk on women in the history of computing,because it's not all Alan Turing, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. (First degree history, second degree computer science - than working in IT, I wondered why there weren't more women, and do I started reading...)

I once booked to go to a talk at the British Library, on industrial accidents and diseases in the 19th century, but it was due in 2020, so it never happened.

I did my undergraduate dissertation on the history of Merthyr, where they had a high number of industrial injuries, in the iron trade, then coal and so on (plus there was the complete lack of running water and lack of sanitation in much of the town.) I was more focussed on the 1842 Mines Act, but it interested me that 1913 was the peak year for coal production, and how WW1 must have affected a) workers and b) mines, by some mines not being fully worked and becoming dangerous by not having pit props repaired, or gas building up.

Me too, esp when added to a previous poster's idea about quilting etc moving from a necessity to a leisure activity - how the heck did women fit in hours and hours of stitching everyone's clothes and bedding and soft furnishings on top of all the other housework without appliances, pregnant most of the time....

This might sound really, really boring but as you mentioned the, "History of aesthetic landscapes" I thought of researching how the idea of public spaces came about.

How the Great Parks of London were started, the history of how the Great Exhibitions were financed, Toxteth Park, the democratisation of urban green spaces from the original feudal hunting grounds, the circuses, fairs and pleasure gardens...

The idea of keeping animals in a zoo...

Horse racing, dog racing, gambling...

Hippodromes and ice skating.

Public swimming baths and Lidos.

Public swimming baths and Lidos.

There were a couple of good books on this a few years ago - Liquid Assets and Great Lengths. Also, the ASA did a history of itself, In the Swim.

A topic that interests me is the development of road/driving discipline. (Almost) everyone obeys rules of the road, to a higher degree than they obey other cultural rules. There will be documents in legislation, public service announcements etc. When cars first appeared, it was a free-for-all and had to be regulated. Same for horse-driven vehicles.

https://share.google/3xqkaYsRQkgY9sVGQ

Oh thankyou! I'm warming to my subject now. Here's the Manchester Victoria Baths. Interestingly, it provided laundry facilities.

My granny was a knitter in Donegal town. She knitted Aran jumpers while watching the telly! Never saw her look at a pattern either. My grandad used to roll up the wool into smaller balls for her. She also crocheted beautiful ponchos for me and my sisters. My uncle set up a shop in London selling the jumpers. I was also lucky enough to see a relative of mine hand looming tweed for Magee (Donegal tweed) in his house when I was a young girl.

https://share.google/c2lGO6JRicn20oe57

A bigger splash! From The Guardian. Mentions the, "Baths And Wash Houses Act of 1846."

My great grandfather was the only one of 6 children born who survived to adulthood in Dundee. He was born in 1867 - mother worked in the mills and eventually died in childbirth. He ended up in the poorhouse aged 3. They had shocking lives. He went on to marry and had 10 children !

Following! My favourite topic during my degree was the history of birth control, there were only 10 of us on the course (massive university, all women on the course of course) and it was fascinating.

I’d suggest being closely associated with the expertise of your supervisor(s), also, the supervisor who is likely to be helpful. I did my PhD 25 years ago, and worked in academia (medicine so the sleep one would appeal to me lol), but you’ll need help and support, so make sure the supervisor you would rely most on is good and knowledgable on the subject you chose … if you continue in research that’s when you can branch out and do something really unique - good luck!

I think quite a few 19th century wash/bath houses were for clothes and the sort of bath where you washed yourself. I think the building in London that used to house the Women's Library until it moved to LSE was one. There were spa baths like at Bath and Turkish baths, and early sea bathing was all for health, and then you start getting proper swimming baths. In the '20s and '30s, there's the rise of lidos, which goes along with the rise of outdoor organisations- walking and cycling holidays, and youth hostels, and then post WW2, the rise of indoor pools (obviously there were some before,) and central heating, so people found outdoor pools less appealing because they weren't as hardy and tough as they once were (I grew up in a house with no central heating, so I may be projecting a bit here...) Plus more awareness of pollution etc. I remember my Mum talking about pools being closed in the '50s because of polio and Salk vaccines not yet coming in. And now it mostly seems to be a question of funding.

The Design Museum had a good exhibition on swimming pools and costumes earlier this year.

Currently starting my own MSc thesis in a History-adjacent subject. Suggestions for inspiration:

Rather than thinking about broad topics, possibly start with some underused primary sources. Get onto your local archives catalogue and look for interesting collections that you could work with.

Think about where your strengths lie and/or what kind of research methods you'd like to use and work from there.

Browse some recent journals in your areas of interest and see if they spark anything.

Is it usual to be assigned a supervisor prior to choosing a topic? When I did my dissertation (albeit 20 years ago!) we picked the topic first and then we were assigned a supervisor who had the closest experience to it (and would then help us finesse it).

this is fascinating

I do have a bit of an interest in gendered justice and the ways in which women would frequently receive harsher sentences then men for the same or lesser crimes. The language around reporting it is really interesting too, the idea that they've commited a crime against nature because they've gone against gendered expectations. Lots of primary sources there.

particularly with some recent crimes and reporting - I wonder how far we have really come.